You only live once: A common phrase used around the world to indicate how one should live their life to the fullest. This is a great concept for individuals to take advantage of the life they have been given, but to assure life for the future, resources and the environment should be taken into consideration in the process. In 1969, sustainability was introduced with the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and has been an important topic ever since. Sustainable Plant Magazine defines sustainability as, “Operating our business in ways that meet the needs of the present without compromising the world we leave to the future.”

Temperature measurement is one of the most common measurements in the process industry.

Every temperature measurement loop has a temperature sensor as the first component in the loop. So, it all starts with a temperature sensor. The temperature sensor plays a vital role in the accuracy of the whole temperature measurement loop.

As any measurement instrument you want to be accurate, also the temperature sensor needs to be calibrated regularly. Why would you measure temperature, if you don’t care about the accuracy?

In this blog post, I will take a look at how to calibrate temperature sensors and what are the most common things you should consider when calibrating temperature sensors.

The shortest answer is to automate documentation to save time, lower risks, and quickly analyze data to make better decisions.

Most process plants have some sort of system in place for managing instrument calibration operations and data. However, just like airport security, the systems and processes can be very different even within the same company across different plants. Methods often differ greatly in terms of cost, quality, efficiency, and accuracy of data and the level of automation.

If you are manually writing results on paper or even manually entering data electronically, you’re spending about half your time on paperwork.  Using a documenting calibrator to automatically transfer test data to calibration software designed for the task can decrease the amount of time spent on calibration in many cases by up to 75%.

In this blog post, I want to share a webinar titled "Calibration uncertainty and why technicians need to understand it." This webinar was a collaboration with Beamex and ISA (International Society of Automation) subject matter experts.

It describes a practical approach to calibration uncertainty and  also provides real-life applications.

How one of America’s largest public power utilities integrated its asset management software with calibration software to reduce risk and increase efficiency

Many calibration technicians follow long-established procedures at their facility that have not evolved with instrumentation technology. Years ago, maintaining a performance specification of ±1% of span was difficult, but today’s instrumentation can easily exceed that level on an annual basis. In some instances, technicians are using old test equipment that does not meet new technology specifications. This article focuses on establishing base line performance testing where analysis of calibration parameters (mainly tolerances, intervals and test point schemes) can be analyzed and adjusted to meet optimal performance. Risk considerations will also be discussed – regulatory, safety, quality, efficiency, downtime and other critical parameters. A good understanding of these variables will help in making the best decisions on how to calibrate plant process instrumentation and how to improve outdated practices.

In this post we share an educational video on how to calibrate weighing scales.

The video goes through the various tests that should be performed during a scale calibration / scale recalibration.

These tests include:

• Eccentricity test
• Repeatability test
• Weighing test
• Minimum weight test

This is the first blog post in the Beamex blog series "Calibration in Times of Digitalization" we will take a look into the future to give you an understanding of hot topics such as Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory, which are on everyone's minds.

You have probably heard of terms such as Digitilization, Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory. But what do these really mean? Many users of these new technologies don’t yet fully grasp them. This is completely understandable and that's why we will gradually bring you closer to these topics in this Beamex blog series and help you enter the future well informed.

Whether on television, in newspapers or on social media, hardly a day goes by without futuristic topics such as digitalization, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning. But futuristic? Hasn't the future already arrived?

Process instrument calibration is just one of the many maintenance related activities in a process plant. The last thing you want to do is to have your limited resources wasting time performing unnecessary calibrations or using time-consuming, ineffective calibration procedures.

Yet, you need to make sure that all critical calibrations are completed, ensuring the site stays running efficiently with minimal downtime, product quality is maintained, while the plant remains regulatory and safety compliant, and audit-ready.   

In this blog post, I will share with you a two-part webinar series titled “How to calibrate temperature instruments”. We did this webinar together with our partner ISA (International Society of Automation).

The webinars covers some theory, many practical things, demonstrations of temperature instrument calibration and Questions & Answers sections.